3rd Shock Army

The 3rd Shock Army was a field army of the Red Army, and a playable faction in the Call of Duty, Call of Duty: World at War and Call of Duty: Black Ops campaigns. The player first assumes the role of the 3rd Shock Army during the mission "Vendetta", where Dimitri Petrenko is laying in a fountain. He is later assigned with the 150th Rifle Division, which is part of the 3rd Shock Army, during the events of the battle of Berlin. Like many regiments and units within the Soviet military, the 3rd Shock largely consisted of raw recruits and conscripts from the lowest Soviet classes. Few units had experienced commanders, due to Stalin's purges of the military, where a huge number of Soviet NCOs and officers were executed for imaginary crimes. Because of this, few of the unit commanders at the start of the war had the confidence to make radical attacks, or to go against their overall orders for fear of death.